UNIVERSITY EFL STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF SOCIAL MEDIA USE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO THEIR ENGLISH READING PROFICIENCY: A QUALITATIVE STUDY

Abstract

Social media has become deeply embedded in university students' daily lives, exposing them to substantial amounts of English-language text through captions, comments, and short-form digital content. While prior research has examined this relationship primarily through standardized test scores or quantitative usage surveys, few studies have explored how students themselves interpret this connection in their own authentic voices. This qualitative study explored how English Education major students perceive the relationship between their informal social media use and their English reading proficiency, adopting a phenomenological design grounded in New Literacies theory. Data were gathered from ten fourth-year English Education students at Institut Pendidikan Indonesia (IPI) Garut through open-ended written questionnaires distributed via Google Forms, which were subsequently analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Findings revealed four interrelated themes: incidental vocabulary and expression acquisition through casual exposure, perceived but limited transfer to academic reading constrained by register differences, mixed effects on sustained reading focus and cognitive attention span, and social media functioning as a motivational bridge for reluctant readers. The study concludes that students experience social media not as an outright substitute for academic texts, but as an autonomous, low-pressure supplementary literacy practice that shapes their textual engagement in nuanced and divergent ways. These empirical insights suggest that higher education EFL practitioners should intentionally acknowledge and scaffold students' everyday digital reading habits rather than isolating informal communicative practices from formal academic instruction.

ABSTRAK

Media sosial telah menjadi bagian yang tidak terpisahkan dari rutinitas harian mahasiswa, memaparkan mereka pada teks berbahasa Inggris dalam jumlah yang signifikan melalui takarir (caption), utas komentar, dan video berdurasi pendek. Penelitian-penelitian terdahulu umumnya menguji korelasi ini melalui pendekatan kuantitatif skor tes atau survei penggunaan, sementara penelitian yang mengeksplorasi pemaknaan subjektif mahasiswa secara mendalam masih sangat terbatas. Penelitian kualitatif ini bertujuan untuk mengeksplorasi bagaimana mahasiswa Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris mempersepsikan hubungan antara kebiasaan bermedia sosial dengan kecakapan membaca bahasa Inggris mereka berdasarkan perspektif teori New Literacies. Data dihimpun dari sepuluh mahasiswa program studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris di Institut Pendidikan Indonesia (IPI) Garut menggunakan kuesioner terbuka tertulis secara daring, kemudian dianalisis menggunakan analisis tematik model enam tahap. Hasil penelitian mengidentifikasi empat tema sentral: perolehan kosakata dan ungkapan secara insidental melalui paparan kasual, transfer parsial ke ranah membaca akademik yang terbentur perbedaan laras bahasa (register), dampak yang terpolarisasi terhadap rentang konsentrasi membaca, serta peran media sosial sebagai jembatan motivasional bagi pembaca yang enggan. Studi ini menyimpulkan bahwa mahasiswa memposisikan media sosial bukan sebagai pengganti teks akademik formal, melainkan sebagai wadah pengayaan literasi digital mandiri yang memperluas keterpaparan bahasa Inggris mereka secara kontekstual. Temuan ini mengimplikasikan pentingnya bagi dosen untuk mengintegrasikan praktik literasi digital informal mahasiswa ke dalam perancangan strategi instruksional membaca di kelas formal.